Avalon River Cruise Reviews

We had a wonderful time travelling the Rhine. Our ship was a joy to stay on. The cabin was small but we were only in it to shower and sleep after busy exciting days ashore. Avalon were a great company to travel with, supportive and helpful. The crew were always willing to ensure we experienced a happy holiday.

From the time we first contacted Leanne at Global Journeys right through to the last day, the whole cruise was magic. The only thing I would add was that on the final day it sort of fizzled out in the hotel... I realise that people coming off the cruise have planes to catch etc. but it would have been nice to wrap up the cruise with a final dinner at ...read more the hotel.

This river cruise base cost included many off shore excursions. However, to get maximum value, the extra off shore activities are an extra cost. This needs to be taken into account when working out the total cost of the trip, but does add flexibility. Avalon is clearly trying to be the best company to travel with on the waterways of Europe. This is ...read more our second cruise with this group and we will be booking our next trip with them.

Loved every minute of my river cruise, cabin was great, food & wine were excellent. Enjoyed the variety of excursions and the towns visited. Cruise Director Isabel was wonderful. I am a solo traveller and was made to feel very welcome onboard. Met other solo travellers who hopefully will keep in contact. Would definitely recommend a river cruise ...read more and in particular Avalon. Best holiday of my life!!!!!

We had an absolutely fabulous time cruising through Eastern Europe. The Avalon Passion is the newest ship in the fleet and it is outstanding. Our stateroom was extremely comfortable and luxurious, the staff were very friendly and helpful and the daily tours were very informative and well planned. This is the second time we have booked through Global ...read more Journeys and we will definitely use them again.

We chose Avalon because of our previous wonderful trips and we weren't disappointed. The food was incredible, the service outstanding, and our suite excellent. We visited countries of Europe we hadn't been to before and really enjoyed the experience. The extension was a great trip to end our cruise.

Our booking was arranged by Madeline from Global ...read more Journeys. We found Madeline to be very professional, friendly and extremely helpful.

It was an excellent holiday for the family. The food and services on the boat were superb. We all put on weight, of course. The excursions were mostly well organised. The Avalon crew was very professional and friendly. Would recommend this trip without reservation.

This was my first river cruise even though I had been on many ocean cruises. It was a completely different experience with only 152 people onboard and I really enjoyed it. Our cruise director, Tony, was excellent and we had some wonderful entertainment onboard. The accommodation on Sapphire deck with a bed facing panoramic windows was very comfortable ...read more and tastefully decorated.

There were so many lovely stops on this cruise but one memorable experience was a magical snowy day tour in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. I would recommend staying a couple of extra days in Vienna and an extra day or two in Prague as there is lots to see in those two beautiful cities. My favourite Christmas markets were the ones at the Rathaus in Vienna and in Nuremberg.

Thank you to Yvonne at Global Journeys and to Avalon for making this such a wonderful Christmas holiday!

My adult daughter and I had 7 wonderful nights aboard Imagery II. From first boarding until we left everything and everyone was just amazing. Our cruise director made sure we all knew what was happening every day and even made sure we didn't get hit by bicycles on our many excursions ashore. The Executive Chef and his team made sure we were well ...read more fed at all times, providing both healthy and not so healthy choices for each meal - we were in heaven.

Our friendly waitstaff made our meals, particularly dinner, very enjoyable and relaxing. Out wonderful cabin steward spoilt us every morning with a tidy of our room and also made an elephant with the towels (very talented). And lets not forget the Captain and his crew. We met some very lovely people, which helped make the cruise all the more special. I will definitely be taking another Avalon cruise at some time. Our agent at Global Journeys made our wonderful holiday very special. Thank you so much.

The "Avalon Passion" is a beautiful and comfortable ship. We were delighted with our cabin, the extremely comfortable bed, and the large ensuite. Storage space was more than adequate. The crew were excellent. We loved their friendliness and appreciated their willingness to meet our every need. Excursions were very good and very efficiently managed ...read more by the cruise director. We purchased several additional tours, and they were all very good value for money. We would love to repeat the cruise some time in the future. However, affordability will always be a factor that we will need to consider.

As we had never been on a river cruise before and only heard from others who had done this, we were unsure what we would find. Well the only word to describe it is luxury. The Imagery II we were lucky to get on, was in its second season, and wow what an experience. Capt Marian was a very friendly Host.

We were on the top floor for accommodation, ...read more it was spacious and beautiful, sitting at our table and chairs with the sliding door opened with a drink, sailing down the Rhine was very relaxing, our steward Jerry gave us a beautiful smile every day. The food was never boring, each region you visited the wine and food reflected this.

The tour director provided all information twice daily to us , once by a daily newsletter, always found on your bed after dinner and Vlads talk each evening before dinner. All places we visited they provided excellent local guides, optional tours were fairly priced and interesting. All we can say is this is our new way of holidaying.

Our first river cruise was with APT in 2016, so we can only use that very good experience as a comparison to the Avalon cruise. The upgrade to deck 2 was a real bonus. Another bonus was the optional excursions offered by Avalon. As with APT, most of the included excursions are half day, leaving a fair bit of time on the cruise spent on the ship or on ...read more 'own time' in the town where the ship is moored.

APT didn't offer any optional trips, so Avalon has the advantage in that respect. The only negative issue was that the buffet breakfast dishes were consistently lukewarm to cold. Similar dishes at lunch were fine. Overall, we'd be happy to travel with Avalon again. After four trips to Europe, which centered mainly on the culture (churches, cathedrals, palaces and castles), we'll be looking for something that offers a different theme next time. Maybe food, wine etc.

Very lucky with the weather for the time of year - lots of sunny days. Our 2nd trip with Avalon and overall very happy. There appeared to be less staff in bar and restaurant than previous trip - maybe cost cutting? Some staff didn't appear to be very happy (maybe the end of season is near?). Captain, Cruise Director, room staff & food were very good. ...read more Included and optional excursions were great. The availability of bikes on board now is an added plus.

Our stateroom (213) was located in the centre of the ship and a good size. Housekeeping staff did a great job of maintaining the room. The scenery along the Moselle was stunning and would highly recommend a cruise along this river - Avalon go further than many of the other cruise lines. The Rhine was beautiful - always something to see! The evening entertainment was mainly the on board keyboard player, they did bring on various musicians along the way. But as dinner didn't usually finish till 9.00pm most people went straight to their cabins as the days were busy when on the excursions. The age of fellow travellers was a lot older for this cruise with more people taking the gentle walkers group than previous tour. Would recommend Avalon for good value. Very happy with all dealings with Global Journeys - you all do an excellent job and we very much appreciate it!

Unfortunately wet weather played a big part where we had to use umbrellas when site seeing and could not sit on the top deck to view best part of the Rhine where the vineyards and castles were. Our cabin on the royal deck was a bit tight where the chair was an obstruction when walking around the bed end. Staff were polite, efficient and very professional ...read more and their customer service was exceptional. In regards to entertainment there was not enough variety. Shore excursions were run professionally but due to returning back to the ship the time factor for sight seeing was rather short.

The tour guides that we were involved with did a great job and showed how passionate and how knowledgeable they were. The cruise guide did a fantastic job making sure all passengers were fully aware what was in store for them before dinner the night before. Wasn't what we expected there was a lot of travel at night where we missed a lot of viewing of towns and what existed on the shore line this included going through the river locks which was an experience we didn't see but was done at night.

Another very proficient Avalon cruise. All very good. Maybe, too late in the year as the weather was cold (30 Sept - 10 Oct). Our only complaint was that the quality of food provided at dinner was not as good as on our earlier Romantic Rhine Cruise. The vegetarian fair was particularly poor. Breakfast and lunch were fine. Table service was not attentive ...read more and to get a wine glass refilled was often difficult.

The Avalon river cruise from the Black Sea to Budapest takes you on a less travelled part of the Danube, giving you a snapshot of life in Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia before getting to Hungary. There is some time spent off the ship to go on bus tours into the countryside. These tours were largely included which was very good, but sometimes it was god ...read more to just relax on the ship. Facilities on board were superb.

We have just returned from a month in France which included Avalon's Grand France cruise (WLP) from Cote D'Azur starting on 18th September and ending on 3rd October 2017. We had cabin 203 on both ships. We also had the same cruise director for both cruises - Jean-Loup Domart who kept us entertained with his dry wit during his daily briefings and was ...read more very helpful, knowledgeable and patient. The first cruise was on Affinity and Creativity on the second leg. The ships do sail during the night, sometimes only for a short time but sometimes all night. Unfortunately cabin 203 on Affinity had a very annoying sliding glass door rattle which happened to be next to my head. I did let the receptionist know and was told maintenance would come and check it out but they never did. Otherwise, we were very happy with both cabins and ships overall.

I would suggest they should have coffee, tea etc available in the main lounge/bar area rather than at the rear of the ship too. We enjoyed all the included and optional excursions and everything was run smoothly and we were well looked after. The food was delicious but surprisingly we thought it was a little nicer on Affinity. The weather was very king to us and we had warm days and cool nights and mornings - a nice time to be in France. Overall we would highly recommend this cruise especially for first time travellers to France. As usual, Global Journeys handled our booking well and got us a good discount.

The cruise boat was very clean, staff were very pleasant & helpful, food was excellent. I was surprised that almost all of the food & drink one needed was covered in the price - there was little need to spend anything extra except for drinks other than at meals & when I went on shore guided walks or excursions. I was also surprised I was able to see ...read more so much on the walks or excursions.

The downside was having a cabin on the lowest deck without any access to fresh air. Air conditioning was adequate but very drying & caused me to have to drink a lot of water throughout the nights. Global Journeys did an efficient job with bookings.

A wonderful trip Budapest to Bucharest with a side trip to Transylvania. Thoroughly enjoyed all included and additional excursions. A great of guests from various countries, the majority middle aged and older. One error in the cruise documentation was that the Euro would be accepted in all countries visited, this was not the case and we required ...read more local currency in all the countries visited, I'm sure Avalon will rectify this.

Our Avalon river cruise through France was fantastic from beginning to end. From the fantastic friendly crew for whom nothing was too much trouble, and our super efficient and personable cruise director to the amazing food and fine dining, plentiful drinks and luxurious on board accommodation, everything was even better than I'd imagined. The local ...read more guides at each town along the way shared their extensive knowledge about the town and brought its history to life through interesting and at time humorous anecdotes. The optional extra tours provided even further opportunities to see even more. It was an unbeatable way to see France. I would thorough recommend this holiday and would happy do it all again.